BVD Flexibilities for Scottish Cattle Keepers

Scottish cattle keepers are being reminded by NFU
Scotland that flexibilities built into Scotland’s Bovine Viral Diarrhoea
(BVD) eradication scheme can assist movements.

Phase 4 of the Scottish BVD
eradication started on 1 June 2015 and brought movement
restrictions for any cattle holdings with a ‘not negative’ status,
or holdings that have no valid annual herd status recorded. In herds
with a ‘not negative’ status, animals will need to be individually
tested before moving – unless that move is direct to slaughter. Untested
animals and known Persistently
Infected (PI) animals will only be
permitted to move direct to slaughter, not through a market.

NFU
Scotland is reminding producers that, to reduce the level of
individual testing of animals required, some ‘assumed’ statuses will
be applied. It will allow some animals to still move as if they had
an individual test result.

As an example, when a calf is individually tested negative for BVD
virus, an ‘assumed’ negative status will also be applied to that
calf’s mother on the BVD data base allowing her to move as if she
had also been individually tested negative. Also, an individual negative
test status does not ‘expire’ so a calf tested at birth will retain
that status and will not require retesting prior to sale.

At the same time, when a cow is individually tested positive for
BVD virus and identified as a PI animal, any of her offspring will
also be assumed to PI animals, marked as such on the database and
restricted to moving direct to slaughter.

NFU Scotland’s Animal Health and Welfare Policy Manager Penny Johnston
said:
“As we negotiate this latest phase on Scotland’s plan to eradicate
the scourge of BVD from our cattle, these ‘assumed’ flexibilities
can assist movements and help with the number of individual animals
requiring testing.

“Assumed statuses are based on knowledge of the veterinary epidemiology
of BVD. A PI cow will only ever have a PI calf, so it can safely be
assumed that any calves born to a PI will also be PI animals.

“Similarly a BVD-negative calf cannot be born from a PI dam, so it
can be assumed that the mother of a negative calf must also be negative,
assuming the dam has been accurately identified.

“The BVD database at www.scoteid.com will show the individual test
results for any animals that a cattle keeper has tested and will also
apply assumed statuses where applicable.

“Our suggestion is check the BVD database for any animals that you
are unsure about and you will be able to see if you need to test or
not before you think about moving an animal to a market for sale.”